Roosevelt Island, two miles long and narrow, will soon be home to students focusing on technology. The island is preparing to become Silicon City. AP /Mark Lennihan

In the East River and in plain sight of Long Island City and the Upper East Side is Roosevelt Island, a two-mile-long sliver of land that many New Yorkers have never set foot upon. Aside from the constant drone of the FDR drive to the west and the Queensboro Bridge overhead, the island’s 14,000 residents live a quiet existence — one that will likely soon change.